Music on Jewish Themes

by CMNW guest blogger Bob King

I’m sure there are many compositions for solo trombone and drums, but until last Saturday night’s CMNW Encore Series concert “Music on Jewish Themes”, I didn’t know there was even one. Ok, strike that, apparently the piece I heard, “Elohai N’Shomo”, is a Hebrew liturgical song, but I have to tell you it sounded terrific as played by David Taylor, bass trombone, and Michael Sarin, drums. Surprises just like this were pretty much the order of the evening for this concert which featured the world premiere of David Schiff’s latest composition, “Borscht Belt Follies.”

One thing that wasn’t a surprise to me was the size of the crowd hoping to buy tickets at the door and the subsequent SRO audience. I wasn’t surprised because I had read David Stabler’s effective preview of the concert the day before, in which he quickly summarized the essentials and labeled the featured clarinetist, David Krakauer, as “one of the greatest” of our time. Between that and my (admittedly fuzzy) awareness of Portland’s closely knit Jewish community, the enthusiasm of the patrons at Kaul seemed nearly inevitable. And boy did they get their money’s worth - starting with the aforementioned bass trombone and drum transcription; I really enjoyed Michael Sarin’s work on the drums – he seemed to have just the right balance between punch and control; rhythmic interest and quiet backbeat (can you tell I know almost nothing about drumming?) From this controlled outburst of brass and crash, we transitioned to the quiet and reflective Ernest Bloch piece “From Jewish Life” for piano and cello performed by two thirds of the excellent Apollo Trio, Michael Kannen and Marija Stroke, respectively. I especially enjoyed the first section “Prayer”, with its balladic tempo and form.

Then onto the treat of the night, Schiff’s “Follies.” Here I am at a distinct disadvantage; if it wasn’t for my father-in-law, a nice boy from Beach Street in the Bronx, who has told us stories of those Friday evenings during summers in the Catskills, when the mothers and kids lined the road to the cottages as the fathers drove in from their work week in the city, if not for those stories I would know bupkis about Jewish life. Fortunately a cultural background wasn’t needed to appreciate the terrific music in this tribute to Jewish life in NYC and The Catskills of the 1950’s. I wish I could do greater justice to what I’m sure are a myriad of cultural and musical references contained therein; I will not attempt to expose my pitiful ignorance of 1950’s jazz and Jewish life. What I can tell you I heard was an amazing ability to create picture after picture in my mind; you hear the word kaleidoscope thrown around quite a bit, but this truly was a remarkable musical cocktail in which I saw as much as heard visions of home life, city-scapes, jazz bars, funeral marches, a Jewish wedding, and much more.

Ironically, the more recognizable chamber music format of the piano trio, in this case the Shostakovich No. 2 in E Minor, was somewhat the odd duck in this concert. That isn’t to say that the Apollo Trio’s performance of this wartime memorial to the composer’s friend and leading Soviet polymath, Ivan Sollertinsky, was something less than excellent; to be sure, its weight and seriousness served as a good counterbalance to some of the wild moments of the night. I suppose the difference was the standard movement formats and that there were no drums of course! Speaking of drums, they were back for the finale of the night – some rocking Klezmer standards (if you can use that word for Klezmer.) At one point during the peak of Krakauer’s take on a Synagogue Wail, I could tell that more than a few audience members were concerned that the performer might expire on the spot from either a heart attack or burst lung, the clarinetist having nearly literally reached a fevered pitch! And even I recognized the classical folk song Der Heyser Bulgar, a fun dance to end the night. Bravo, Mr. Schiff.